https://www.semiaccurate.com/2018/08/16/deimos-and-hercules-appear-on-the-arm... A-76 Deimos Hercules
The future according to ARMThis slide comes with a lot of caveats. First the workload is strictly single threaded but the power is at the SoC level. Intel is at 15W, ARM is at 5W. The 2 core Intel machine could hyperthread four of those threads at 15W, albeit with some loss of peak 1T performance while the ARM SoC could probably do the same at a much lower 5W as it is an unnamed compute form factor SoC which is unlikely to have less than four big cores. That means it can likely sustain the 5W TDP with ease for extended periods of time and the same holds true for the Intel CPU at 15 TDP. Whatever those losses may be on either side the 3x energy use delta pretty much hands the performance and battery life win to ARM.
*(Note: ARM was asked why they didn’t include the newer 8xxx Intel CPUs in the graph. The answer was pretty simple, all of the testing was done with purchased devices and ARM couldn’t find an 8xxx Intel CPU on the market to test with when they ran the numbers.)
The intent of this reveal is to show that ARM is capable of not just beating Intel at their strong suit, single threaded performance, but doing so at significantly lower power levels. This may seem like a stretch but if you look at current ARM architectural license cores like the Apple A11 and the Cavium/Marvell Thunder X2/Vulcan, it is pretty clear that ARM cores can hit pretty high performance levels.
More importantly the vanilla ARM cores are designed for a wide frequency range so they leave some performance on the table to gain that flexibility. If you take an ARM core and design it for a small number of workloads and frequency ranges, you can get a lot more performance out of the SoC, and we mean a lot. The classic example of this is the Apple A11 which currently trounces the best Intel has at performance per Watt and in many cases raw performance. The numbers SemiAccurate has seen for the A12 show it gains about 50% more single threaded performance without changing energy use. Some of this is process related but most of it is architectural. You will see in a few weeks and you will be impressed.
So in the end Deimos and Hercules are the next two from ARM and the gains are pretty impressive. The current A76 is a big step over the still kind of current A75. Hercules will be just as big a step over A76 but Deimos 7nm+++ slots itself in-between.
In any case ARM should be right in the mix for thin and light laptops but with substantial feature improvements over Intel like 5G, always on, instant on, and more. With the added performance off the new architectures, raw CPU performance will be right up there with the best.OK, when this came out originally everyone was all amazed and everyone said
"Hey, ARM NEVER releases information on anything until it is acturally being built by a vendor and they say something publicaly."I said that myself too, and I surely wondered what was up.
What's up is becoming a lot clearer now.Apple is what's up. Samsung is what's up. Qualcomm is what's up. TSMC and Samsung 7nm+++ is what's up. Samsung/Qualcomm/TSMC 5nm is what's up. All this stuff got announced by the players at the last German PC show.
Apple is now working on doing trial production runs at TSMC's EUV 7nm+++ process at this time on a Deimos based (very very tweeked) SoC called the A13.
Look at the big chart with the explanations added to it. It isn't just some proposed BS vaporware like Intel would do --
these are trial run SoCs already really exist and there are proposed 2019 and 2020 products are being designed and built around these sample SoCs from these sample runs at this time.
So ARM actually did what it always does, only after their customer/vendor/builders make their initial first real moves will ARM announce their next generation publicly.
The last two dots on the chart are Deimos and Hercules from ARM.
Deimos is a 7nm+++ half generation EUV process move on a 5nm intended Hercules full generation move, with the SoC design and the tech being used is essentially the same.
So the ARM full secrecy goes back into place now. So you can now expect a new ARM generation will be announced to replace Hercules right about the same time as 5nm Hercules is being built out in large runs of products and these first trial lots of the new not named yet ARM stuff at 3nm gate all around are built.
Apple's A13 will be the first tweeked member of this current fully announced Deimos generation.
Apple's A14 will likely be the first 5nm ARM Hercules design coming out inside the next two years.
Huawei and Apple are neck & neck right now on their 7nm++ "firsts" but
they are both being leapfrogged right now by the others going down to 5nm in the background right now as we speak.
7nm+++ (alias Deimos) is firmly in the pipeline for next year for full production in phones. Current Apple production efforts says it is real.So it is all becoming real now ...... Intel actually went underwater on per core performance at that first A-76 dot on the chart and the lines will officially cross there at that first A-76 dot when the next version of this chart comes out.===================================================
* A point to be made here about Intel. Intel makes outlandish claims for planned new stuff and touts the the new stuff like crazy at least a year before you can buy any of it. This does not mean it is real or is ever going to be real.
Intel marketing lies a lot, in other words.ARM won't even talk about their stuff until a vendor is actually producing it.
This means the Intel boys are posting bogus performance claims like a year in advance of Intel's "reality only you can buy it right now stuff". Yes, baffling their consumer customer base with verbal trickery is certainly a part of Intel's little black bag of tricks.
If ARM is firmly ahead in this sort of race, it means ARM is really WAY WAY out in front by the time Intel finally gets itself into the starting blocks for real ..... if they ever get there that is.
ARM is staying another whole 1-2 generations ahead in general now .......
It takes ARM less time to roll an entire processor generation than it takes Intel to get around to actually making the stuff they are bragging about right now.